Toward a Workplace Pedagogy: Guidance, Participation, and Engagement

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION
Workplace as Learning Environment. Development of a workplace pedagogy directed at developing expert vocational practice through work and throughout working lives.

 First,for manyworkersindeed, for large cohorts of workers across a range of industry sectorsthe workplace provides the most likely situation to initially develop vocational knowledge. The experiences and support provided by workplaces

 Second,workplace experiences make important contributions to learning vocational practice. Many highly prized vocational preparation programs(e.g.,for the trades, law, medicine) include lengthy periods of workplace experience

 Thirdly, they are often seen as providing experiences that augment and support what is being taught in educational institution

 Fourthand perhaps most importantmost of the ongoing development of workersskills throughout their working lives will occur through participation in work. Vocational practice changes and the requirements for work performance transforms over time.

 However, this is likely to be a hard-earned goal and unlikely to be achieved without intentionality in theorganizationofworkplace activities and support. For these reasons, understanding

 Everyday participation in work activities has been shown to develop many of the capacities required for effective work practice ). Although these contributions are salient, a workplace pedagogy, however, needs to comprise more than intentional guided learning through work. Other, and more foundational, factors need to be included. Central to these are workplace paticipatory practices: Engaging in work activities that are novel and there by extending individuals capacities, securing appropriate guidance from experienced coworkers,andbeingabletoaccesspracticeinprizedtasksareallsalientin developing, honing, and extending individualsvocational knowledge.

LEARNING THROUGH WORK

(a) engagement in everyday work tasks, (b) direct or close guidance of coworkers, and (c)indirect guidance provided by the workplace itself and others in the workplace. These workers proposed that the workplace provides authentic learning experiences that are highly applicable to the circumstances in which they are learned. Everyday work activity can also provide combinations of new learning and practice that can assist, reinforce, refine, and extend what was initially learned. The negotiation with and resolution of these tasks (even if it is partial) has cognitive consequences as these activities transform individuals knowledge. Different kinds of learning are likely to arise from participation through work, depending on the degree and frequency of these experiences.

LEARNING THROUGH WORK

Workplace artifactssuch as objects, signs, tools, and symbols also provide access to the knowledge required for performance, as do other forms of visual clues and cues provided by observing coworkers.

LEARNING THROUGH WORK

These limitations include the following: (a) learning that is inappropriate (e.g., dangerous, shoddy, inflexible practices), yet available and reinforced in workplaces; (b) the contested nature of work practice inhibiting individuals access to activities and guidance required for rich learning; (c) difficulties in learning knowledge not readily accessible in the workplace (e.g., conceptual and symbolic knowledge); (d) difficulties with accessing appropriate expertise and experiences required to develop vocawith accessing appropriate expertise and experiences required to develop vocational knowledge; and (e)the reluctance of workers to participate in learning vocational practice through their workplace experiences.

GUIDED LEARNING AT WORK

Two kinds: (a) the direct interpersonal guidance in assisting less experienced workers to access and develop capacities that they would not secure through discovery learning alone and (b) managing and guiding access to workplace experiences.

More experienced coworkers can be instrumental in assisting learners development through managing the pace and the sequencing of activities for learners.

WORKPLACE AFFORDANCES
These practices influence individuals learning in the workplace by shaping their participation in work. Workplaces afford learning through participation in workactivities, direct guidance (e.g.,interactions with coworkers), and indirect guidance (e.g., observing and listening in the workplace). How the workplace provides and supportsaffords these activities, and offers guidance, shapes both the unintentional (e.g., everyday contributions of workactivities) and intentional learning activities (e.g., direct guidance by experienced coworkers). That is, the workplace shapes learning through the kinds of access provided for learners to engage in particular kinds of activities and the direct and indirect guidance that individuals are ableto access.

ENGAGEMENT WITH WORKPLACE ACTIVITIES AND GUIDANCE

How individuals engage in work activities and interpret the worth of that participation will also infleunce the quality and nature of their learning.